Material Baking in Zbrush, Can Someone Help?

Hello, I'm having some material baking issues and I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what is going on. Sorry in advance for the picture heavy post, but I wanted to document the steps I took so someone might be able to help me see what I did wrong.

For this project, I am trying to make a clothing item for Second Life using the SL avatar tool that CannedMushrooms (from the Zbrush forums) posted on their site. If needed I can attach the tool that I am working with on this specific question. I made this this morning quickly as a trial item.

I would like VERY much to be able to bake in all the details that I see when I look at the item in Zbrush, so all day today I've been searching my tush off on these & the Zbrush forums. I found a material baking script on the Zbrush forums (will post link below) and have remained hopeful for the past 4 or 5 hours that I've been trying to get it to work, but I'm begining to lose that hope.

The .psd that the script is baking is missing color/material information in certain spots when I follow the exact instructions found on the script's instructions page while baking the object. Thinking I could correct this issue, I decided I would try baking it from a few extra angles (in the first .psd outcome, I had only baked from angles 0, 90, 180, 270, top, and bottom. in the second .psd outcome, I also baked from angles 45, 135, 225, 315.). As you will see in a moment, that certainly did correct my missing color/material issues, BUT it made the texture MUCH MUCH too dark.

First off, I'm using the Material Baker v2 script for Zbrush 3.1 found here::
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=49966&highlight=material+baking

I followed the instructions listed on that page as best as I could, but these instructions do not yield usable results for me. Below I have outlined my workflow::

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1229/1414867307_dce4861ffa_o.jpg


Here, I am simply picking my material and loading the script. All is good so far. I'm not sure if I should have the polypaint+material button and the Material off button highlighted, but my first trials without them highlighted resulted in a .psd texture with no color information on it at all, so I've decided that since I'm getting some sort of result this way, this is the way it is to be done.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1419/1415746696_82d779171e_o.jpg


Step 3, I press start on the script window just like the instructions say to do.
Step 4, I begin the start of many bakes.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1336/1414868705_cdce5ac7fe_o.jpg


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1420/1414869353_551da43811_o.jpg


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1411/1415748816_6cd14fa24f_o.jpg


Finally done baking here, this is before I've hit generate.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1409/1414870981_5ec3bc856d_o.jpg


The outcome. As you can see, this texture is missing ALOT of color and material information in angles that I did not bake on. Since this is not right, I've added more angles in the baking process.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1254/1414872321_87bc531648_o.jpg


Here, I've baked from the extra angles I mentioned at the begining of this post (45, 135, 225, & 315) that were not listed to bake on in the instructions. This seems to be giving good results, but once I'm done, you notice the texture becomes dark in the angles that I had baked in the begining (0, 90, 180, 270, top, & bottom).

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1117/1415751744_7a0d8260cc_o.jpg

In this .psds it is clear that neither of these even resemble what my item looked like before I started using this script (see the first picture posted). These are both .psds laid out together so you can see what went wrong on both::

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1223/1414855981_b92da829a1_b.jpg


As you can see, neither of these results is what I had wanted at all. One is missing tons of color and material information from not being baked in enough angles and the other one, well when I go back and bake the areas that are missing color information, it just starts making the areas I had already baked super dark. It never ends up evening out.

I have been working at figuring this out ALL day literally and have been working with this model and this darn script for HOURS now (5+hours when you add in the time for this post). I am seriously at my wits end and feeling a little crazy. I thought surely when I followed the instructions step by step that it would work, but it didn't. I tried more angles, which seemed to be working, only to find out that it ruined previously baked areas of the texture. What gives? I've tried playing with the lighting a bit, but I don't know if that really has any bearing on this problem and honestly, I REALLY could use someone to stear me in the right direction...please. I know this is not something that everyone uses to do clothing, so ANYONE that knows anything, please, I'm begging you!

I am no expert on baking textures, but I have started to do some texture baking in Zbrush and I have some ideas for other ways you might get the results you want.

I haven't tried with clothes yet. I am working on getting a plastic looking texture for my sculpties with shading and highlights. This is what I figured out. I position my model facing directly forward and select my desired material from the materials pallet and also select my desired lighting. I have not applied any color at this point.

I use projection master with colors, shaded and material all selected. I drop and pick up. The material is now on the texture and it is darker than before. I flip the model over so the the back is facing forward and do the same. My model now is darker but consistently so, except for a stripe around on the sides. I export this texture into photoshop. I delete the white stripe where the material did not get applied and use Flaming Pear solidify to fill in the stripe. This is the materials layer and it is greyscale.

This is as far as I have gotten, but here is what I would do to add color. Go back into zbrush, remove the material and simply apply color to your model using Projection Master. When you have what you want, export that texture. Bring the color layer and the material layer together in one photoshop file. The material layer will be too dark but you can use photoshop to make it lighter. Blend your material layer and your color layer to your liking.

I love Zbrush but it has its quirks. I like to use Photoshop to finish what Zbrush doesn't do, or doesn't do as it should.

I hope this helps.

When using any 3d app for texture baking for SL (me blender lately but also zbrush) is that one has to create a uniform lighting environment.

The best results I got making some materials based clothing for the av model were when I used a 4 light set up, and boosted up the ambient lighting as much as possible without loosing the shading effect.

Then using the projection master, first drop and pick up your model without shading or materials clicked from all angles until you have a solid color texture to save off. (this should be fairly easy with z-brush).

Then go back to the Projection master clicking the materials and shading options.. very carefully drop and pick up your model either turning 1/4 or 1/3 each time. each time you drop paint the edges that will be covered in shadow with a flat texture, this will tell the projection master not render that part.. save it off when satisfactory.

The other way I found to bring in those great zbrush materials is to do your best with the flat texture baking (not shaded or materials) then unwrap the texture using the 'crop and fill' after which you can use the materials to paint on the 2d surface...



-whyroc

Thanks for the quick responses on this!
Unfortunately, I'm Zbrushed out for the day, but will give your suggestions a run in the morning when I start to work. <3

"The other way I found to bring in those great zbrush materials is to do your best with the flat texture baking (not shaded or materials) then unwrap the texture using the 'crop and fill' after which you can use the materials to paint on the 2d surface..."

Sylvia smacks her hand to her forhead. Why didn't I think of that. I am going to give it a try. THANKS.